


Five Times Dr Garner Observes Skye and Coulson Together (And One Time He Doesn't)

by Persiflage



Series: Love Me More Than Dearly, Love Me Wholly [5]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 5 Times, Comfort Food, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Five Plus One, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Minor Character Death, Older Man/Younger Woman, POV Outsider, Skoulson RomFest 2k15 REDUX, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-10 12:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4391660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Does what it says on the tin. Written for the Skoulson RomFest 2k15 Redux.<br/>Day 5 prompts: Trust issues + Dr Garner's Files</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Dr Garner Observes Skye and Coulson Together (And One Time He Doesn't)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zauberer_sirin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/gifts), [RowboatCop](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RowboatCop/gifts).



> I've no idea what a psychiatric report would look like, so rather than fudge it, I decided simply to write this fic from Andrew's PoV (mostly). Events take place before, during, and after other stories already posted in this series.

I

Andrew starts to open Coulson's office door, wondering if today's the day the Director will finally talk to him about losing his arm, and pauses on the threshold, the door only half open, as he takes in the scene before him.

Coulson's sitting at his desk, but his chair is turned sideways, and Skye's standing in front of him, between the Director's legs if Andrew's not mistaken, but there's nothing sexual about what's happening here. Coulson's got both arms wrapped around Skye's middle, even the foreshortened left one, and his face is pressed against her stomach (and turned away from the door so Andrew can't see his expression). Skye's got her left arm around his shoulders and is gently stroking the fingers of her right hand through his hair. She's speaking to the Director, but her voice is soft and low – too quiet for Andrew to make out the words, but the murmur of them sounds comforting.

He grabs the edge of the door and starts to back out, and he's not sure if he makes a noise (he doesn't think so) or if it's the movement of the door disturbing the air in the room – which he knows Skye's sensitive to – but she looks up, giving him a rather blank stare for a moment, and he gives her a brief nod, then steps backwards, and he sees her close her eyes as she focuses her attention back on Coulson.

He already knew, of course, that these two mean a lot to each other – he thinks they're probably each other's most important person, for all that Coulson's known Melinda much longer, and despite what he's heard from Melinda about the whole 'Real SHIELD' thing, and their attitude towards Skye and Coulson's relationship, he thinks their relationship is a good thing for both of them. He never knew Coulson very well, but well enough to see that he's a changed man since his death – and he's quite prepared to believe the Director when he says that a lot of that's down to Skye. As for Skye, having someone believe in her and trust her to the extent that Coulson does can only be a good thing, he's certain. He knows, both from reading her file and from talking with her, that she has trust issues, and it's easy to see why with her background – all those foster homes one after another, would have made her doubt the possibility of her ever having any kind of stability in her life, of ever having a permanent place to call home. 

As he heads back down the stairs to the kitchen to make some tea, he hopes that Coulson will help Skye to achieve that stability. And he is certain she'll go on making him into a better man.

II

Andrew's back from an evening out with Melinda and decides to grab them both some water (not that they drank too much, but even so, it's good practice to stay hydrated). The kitchen's dimly lit by the light coming down the stairs from the corridor above, and he's turning back from the fridge with two bottles of water in his hands when he spots the Director sitting on the couch at the far side of the room, and he's about to open his mouth to greet him, when Coulson frowns at him, and then he realises that Skye's asleep on the couch: she's stretched along its length, still dressed in her dark field suit, which makes her less noticeable, and her head's in Coulson's lap. His right arm is curled over her torso, and his new left hand is tangled in her hair, stroking it lightly.

"She okay?" Andrew mouths across the room from the foot of the stairs. He knows Skye had a mission today, one of the secret ones, but he was already out when she got back and he hasn't been into his office to look at Skye's report (he doesn't doubt she already left him a preliminary one – she's very thorough on that score).

"Getting there," Coulson mouths back, apparently unconcerned by the intimacy of the situation that Andrew's witnessing.

Andrew nods. "You know where to find me if you need me," he says softly, and gets a nod back, then he takes himself upstairs to find Melinda, but he stops to grab Skye's initial report from his desk on the way – just in case Coulson does come find him before the morning. He doesn't think the Director will, but he believes forewarned is forearmed, and it'll likely only take him a few minutes to pick up the salient information from the file. He knows Melinda won't mind because she cares about Skye nearly as much as Phil Coulson does.

When he sees Skye the next day, he doesn’t bring up what he saw the night before – he tends to wait and let her tell him stuff when she's ready as that tactic's worked pretty well so far. He'd learned in his initial meeting with Skye that she doesn't respond well if she's pushed into talking before she's ready.

As he'd hoped, she opens up after only a few minutes of discussion about the older Inhuman woman she met up with the day before.

"She reminded me of Jiaying," Skye tells him.

"In what way?" He'll admit to being curious – he never met Skye's mom, and he's only heard bits and pieces from Skye herself, and when he'd talked to Cal before agreeing to Skye's desire to put Cal through the TAHITI protocol. When they'd talked, her father had spent far more time talking about his daughter, so Andrew's information about Jiaying is pretty basic.

"Marissa is tall, like Jiaying was. Although she's half American, half Chinese, like me. Long dark hair, too. But it wasn't so much how she looks." She sighs, and he waits, watching her across his desk. "When I first met my mom, after the initial, not-so-hot, meeting – before she told me who she was – she seemed very calm and very wise. Marissa's like that – but of course, Jiaying turned out to be not so calm and wise underneath it all."

"Are you worried Marissa will prove to be the same?" Andrew asks.

"No!" Her denial is strong and immediate, but she bites her bottom lip, then says, "A bit."

He nods. "It's understandable. You're going to be wary for a while – both your parents turned out not quite as your initial assessment led you to believe. Your father's a good man, underneath it all – but you thought he was nothing but a monster – a murderer who had little value for anyone."

"Yeah," she whispers.

"Your mother was a lot more complicated. I probably don't need to tell you that what Daniel Whitehall did to her would have upset the balance of anyone's mind, assuming that they too could be brought back from the dead afterwards." He watches her as she ducks her head, eyes on her lap. "Skye, your parents' actions are not your fault or your responsibility, you know that, right?"

"Jiaying's kinda were," she says, looking back up.

He shakes his head. "No. You had no influence over the decisions being made by Robert Gonzales and his people, or the ones made by Jiaying and Gordon. You can't go on beating yourself up for the things other people do, Skye. All you can do is your best to ensure that those kinds of wrong-headed decisions don't get made again where Gifted and other powered people are concerned." He smiles at her. "And I trust you to always make the right decisions on such things."

She bites her lip again, looking a bit embarrassed now, then nods. "Yeah, you're right," she says, pushing herself up to her feet. "You'll talk to Marissa?"

He nods. "I'll catch up with her later today, I promise."

"Thanks." She starts to move towards the door, then looks back at him. "It means a lot to me and to Coulson that you're always available to talk to – and we've both sworn not to abuse that privilege."

He smiles at her. "I trust you on that, too. But if you really need to, do."

She nods. "I will." She lets herself out of his office, and Andrew leans back in his chair with a half smile. He hadn't really expected Coulson to tell Skye that he'd seen the two of them last night, but it doesn't really surprise him either that he did. 

III

Andrew keeps a close eye on Skye in the days following the 'Ward incident' as he calls it. Coulson's in the lab, lying unconscious and hooked up to a number of machines, but Dr Simmons has assured him that the Director will wake up soon, and that he will be okay once his physical injuries are healed. Ward's goons had tortured Coulson, although thankfully not to the same extent that Ward and Kara had tortured Bobbi. (He keeps an eye on Bobbi, too, since he doesn't yet know her well enough to know just how she'll react to what's happened. He suspects she may blame herself for not killing Ward when they fought after Ward and Kara kidnapped her.)

Skye only leaves the lab to go to the bathroom, and Dr Simmons tells him that she's not eating, despite the fact that using her powers always leaves her needing to refuel. She has, at least, changed out of her field suit (the new one she's barely had three weeks) – but only because it's half-shredded and needed to be sent away for repairs. Dr Simmons had taken advantage of Skye removing her field suit to take a look at the cuts and bruises on her shoulders, back, and legs. Skye had been rather snappish about it, insisting that they were nothing, but Andrew's noticed that when Simmons is in full-on Doctor mode she can be just as stubborn as Skye, and in the end she'd given in so she could 'be left in peace' as she phrased it. 

When Andrew spoke to her afterwards, Dr Simmons had reassured him that Skye's injuries were minor and simply the result of her bringing almost half a mountain down on Ward's New HYDRA goons in order to effect her escape with Coulson.

Andrew goes in to see Skye around lunchtime on the first day of her bedside vigil, bringing with him a sandwich he's made for her.

"Hey," he says softly.

She looks round at him and gives him a tired half-smile when he holds out the sandwich. "Thanks."

"Jemma seems quite certain he'll be okay, you know," he says, taking a seat near her, but giving her space too.

"I know," she says, "and I believe her, but I don't want him to wake up alone." She absent-mindedly takes a bite of the sandwich. "He did the same for me when I was shot."

Andrew nods. He knew that – Melinda had told him that one evening when they were talking about the changes in Coulson. "How did it make you feel?"

She chews another bite of sandwich before answering. "Cared for." After a pause. "Loved." She looks at him. "I didn't expect this," she says, gesturing between Coulson and herself, as if to convey their relationship.

He nods. "I can imagine this is something you hadn't dared to believe could happen."

She snorts. "No. I mean, I fell for him on day one. He wasn't anything like I thought a SHIELD agent would be. The fact that he gave Mike a second chance that day? That was what finally made me realise just how different he was." She gives a little reminiscent smile. "Totally overturned my prejudices against the 'scary men in suits'."

Andrew chuckles. "Unless I'm mistaken, you, in your turn, overturned his prejudices against the Rising Tide."

She blushes a little. "Yeah, I think I did."

"I can understand, with the kind of life you've lived, and the fact that you recently rediscovered your parents, then lost them both again, that you're afraid of losing Coulson too, but you won't help him by not looking after yourself, you know." 

She cocks an eyebrow at him over another mouthful of sandwich, and he nods at it, saying gently, "You need to eat. You know, better than I do, how much it takes it out of you to use your powers, and you used them a lot last night to get Coulson to safety. Don't let your natural anxiety over the Director cloud your thought processes to the extent that you neglect yourself. I can't imagine he'd be too happy if he woke up and found you weren't fit for anything, can you?"

She swallows, then ducks her head. "No."

"No," agrees Andrew. "So if Fitz or Simmons, or Mack or Bobbi, or anyone else, offers to make you something to eat, promise me you'll accept? It'll do them good, too, you know – it'll make them feel useful while we all wait for the Director to wake up. No one is going to begrudge you keeping a vigil at his bedside, but let them do their bit to help you get through it, okay?"

She nods, and he gives her another smile, getting to his feet. "I'll let you finish that in peace, then. Send someone to find me if you need me, but I'll come back this evening anyway."

"Thank you, Dr Garner."

Her voice is quiet, almost shy, and he gives her a shoulder a squeeze in passing, then heads towards Melinda, who'd taken over the day-to-day business after Ward's goons grabbed Coulson two days ago (and she's impatient to hand the reins back, he knows); she will likely be in the Director's office working. At least with Skye agreeing to eat properly, Melinda will have one less thing to worry about until Coulson wakes up.

IV

"We half thought you might make it a double wedding, you know," Andrew observes to the Director as he watches Skye, who's standing beside May and looking quite radiant for someone who's not the bride. (May also looks radiant, but brides are supposed to, even when they're re-marrying a former husband.)

Coulson arches an eyebrow at him. "Me? And Skye?" 

Andrew chuckles at the note of disbelief in his voice. "The two of you don't plan to marry, then?"

Coulson shakes his head. "We haven't discussed it."

"Oh." Andrew digests this in silence for a moment, his attention only half on his new wife, who's been joined by Jemma and Bobbi now; the four women have their heads together and Andrew wonders if he should worry about what they're planning. "Would you like to get married?"

Coulson shrugs. "I wanted to, once upon a time."

"Audrey?" Andrew asks softly, and the other man nods. "You never thought of telling her you're still alive?"

"I saw her again," Coulson says, and Andrew's surprised to hear that. "It was in the immediate aftermath of finding out about HYDRA within SHIELD. The powered guy who'd been stalking Audrey when I met her, he was let loose in the chaos and I knew he'd go after her again, so I took a small team with me to Portland to make sure Audrey stayed safe from Daniels."

"But you didn't actually talk to her?"

The Director shakes his head. "I suppose I should have – but it seemed clear to me that she'd moved on, or at least grieved me. And I – " He pauses, then looks over at Skye, who's got her head thrown back and is laughing uproariously at something. "I was already in love with Skye."

"I see." And Andrew does see – he sees that for Coulson to even acknowledge his continued existence to Audrey would've been difficult, painful probably. He can't really blame the man for choosing to avoid that.

"Will you excuse me?" The Director's already on his feet, and Andrew nods, then watches as he heads towards Skye. She sees him coming and steps neatly away from her friends, who're all busy talking anyway. Andrew watches as Skye steps into Coulson's personal space, slipping a hand down the left lapel of his tux, as if straightening it out. The Director's leaning in close, his lips moving as he speaks to Skye, and Andrew sees her grin suddenly, her eyes sparkling with pleasure or amusement, he's not sure which. Coulson slips his left hand behind Skye's back, and she presses her body against his, the two of them apparently oblivious of the rest of the wedding party. They kiss, and Andrew supposes he should feel guilty for his voyeurism, but then he's not the only one watching – and it's not often the Director or Skye indulges in such a very public display of affection. They eventually pull their mouths apart, then Coulson whispers something in Skye's ear and she giggles, then nods eagerly, and the two seem to melt into the crowd without anyone really noticing them going. Andrew suspects they're going to find somewhere quiet to be alone together, and he can't begrudge them that, even though this is his wedding party – his and Melinda's. The thought makes him smile, and he smile broadens into a grin as his new wife walks up, Jemma and Bobbi trailing in her wake.

"Dance with me?" Melinda asks, and Andrew reckons his face is going to split in two if he grins any wider.

"Thought you'd never ask," he says, getting to his feet. He offers Melinda his arm, and she slips hers through his as Jemma asks, "Where did Skye go?"

"Probably to find a quiet corner," Bobbi answers, smirking a little. "Wedding parties are generally a good place for hook-ups."

Andrew thinks Jemma looks simultaneously scandalised and envious at this remark, and he bites back a smile. "You'll excuse us?" he asks, and gets two nods in return, then walks onto the dance floor with his wife.

"I hope they make it to their room before they start anything," Melinda says, and Andrew smirks a bit. 

"I'm sure they'll be discreet," he tells her.

She snorts and not-rolls-her-eyes. "Yeah, okay."

He chuckles, then pulls her in close and kisses her. When he pulls back she's doing her best to scowl at him, but it's not very convincing, and he smirks again, then takes the proper position to dance with his wife, and though she professes to hate dancing, Melinda relaxes into his arms quite easily. He puts Skye and Coulson out of his mind for now, and concentrates on enjoying himself with his wife instead. 

V

Andrew comes into the lab, intending to see how Skye's recovering; she actually collapsed today after using her powers to get Melinda, Hunter, and Jemma to safety, and finally taking Ward down permanently, and although Jemma had, rather shakily, assured everyone that Skye just needed lots of sleep and food, he knows the young Doctor was worried by Skye's collapse – it's the first time she's so badly overtaxed herself while in the field – and matters seem worse because Skye and Coulson are supposed to be getting married tomorrow afternoon. 

He quietly eases aside one of the screens that Jemma had left around Skye's bed so she could recover in some privacy, and is not even half surprised to find someone's beaten him here. Director Coulson had offered his best neutral look in response to the news that Skye had fallen unconscious (the two men had been following the op in Coulson's office since they both had someone they loved out on the field today), but Andrew knows the man a lot better after nearly two years of working with this New SHIELD, and the way he'd clutched his fist inside his other hand, and the hard swallow Andrew had observed, had been enough to tell him that Coulson wasn't nearly as relaxed about the situation as he'd appeared.

He's lying on the gurney beside Skye, spooning her, and both of them are asleep (but then it's late after a long, anxious day). Andrew wonders if Jemma's seen them sharing the gurney, then decides that if she has, she wouldn't object, because she knows how much comfort these two take from each other's presence. He's seen it himself, often enough: Coulson doesn't often go out on the field any more, because neither Skye nor Melinda is happy about having the Director put himself in dangerous situations, but when he does, he and Skye are an unstoppable team. And whether they're working together on the field or back here at the Playground, they're so perfectly attuned to each other that they seem to work in sync – as if they share a single brain, almost. They finish each other's sentences, mirror each other's gestures and posture, and half the time they seem to communicate with each other without the necessity of words, though neither one of them is telepathic. (He's met an Inhuman telepath, and she was a very scary young lady until she got her powers under control.)

He recalls Skye once telling him that she and Coulson were 'pieces to a puzzle' – the puzzle being the location of the Kree temple hidden in the caves under San Juan – and he'll admit that the two of them do mesh very well. He's never known two people who fit together so perfectly – most couples (including himself and Melinda) have occasions where they pull in different directions, but Skye and Coulson never seem to do that. 

He watches the two of them for a few moments: Coulson's arms are wrapped around Skye's torso, and her arms are resting over his, while the Director's forehead is resting against the back of her left shoulder. Andrew almost feels as if he's walked in on them making love and he starts to back away, then stops when he hears a murmur from the gurney – after a moment he realises that Coulson's talking in his sleep, and he hopes the other man's not having a nightmare. (Andrew knows that both of them are prone to the occasional nightmare – which is unsurprising considering everything they've been through.) He waits, wondering if he'll need to wake the Director up, then he hears Coulson speak more clearly: 

"Skye." He sighs, then adds, "I love you", and Andrew decides it's time to beat a retreat.

He slips around the screen, then heads to the kitchen – Skye will be hungry when she finally wakes up, and while he doesn't have Coulson's knack (or secret recipe) for grilled cheese, he can at least make some sandwiches and leave them nearby for her. He doesn't think the Director will mind Andrew stealing his thunder as a food provider, especially since Skye's likely to need to eat a lot more than a couple of sandwiches to make up for her use of her powers in rescuing the others. And once he's left sandwiches for their resident superhero, he'll go and see whether Melinda wants to slip out for an hour to two to eat, rather than ordering in some take-out.

VI 

Skye wakes up and for a moment is too disorientated to know where she is, although she's sure the body pressed against her back belongs to Coulson. She's just stretching out her hand to put on the lamp on the nightstand when the person behind her shifts, and he asks, "Are you okay?"

"Phil, what happened?" 

"What can you recall?"

She shudders, and not in a good way. "Ward," she whispers, and his arms tighten around her, then his lips press into the side of her neck.

"He's gone," Coulson says.

"Yeah," she agrees. She remembers now; May, Hunter, and Simmons had gone on what was meant to be a nice safe artefact retrieval mission – a mission she'd designed – and they'd been ambushed at the site by Ward and some of his New HYDRA goons (as far as she's concerned, 'New' HYDRA is just as bad as the old version). She'd gone along as comms and back end, although she hadn't really been expecting any trouble, and had ended up having to pull her team out – quite literally in Hunter's case, as Ward had taken the Brit down himself. She'd used her powers pretty indiscriminately, both against the bad guys, and in attempting to rescue her team, and it had been her decision to levitate a boulder at Ward that had left him dead (crushed, in fact) that led to her collapsing.

"We're in the lab," Coulson tells her. "Jemma wanted to keep an eye on you."

"Do you know what time it is?"

He slips an arm away from her, and she immediately misses his touch, then his arm reappears, his cell in his hand, and she can see it's past midnight.

"What's that?" she asks, seeing something in the glow from his cell's screen.

"I can't tell," he says, and she feels him shift away from her. She bites back a whimper, telling herself she's being particularly childish, and he pads around the end of the gurney and over to the cupboard that's standing nearby. "Food. Sandwiches, and a brief note from Dr Garner."

_Good old Andrew,_ she thinks, remembering the time he brought her sandwiches while she was keeping that vigil over Coulson. "He's my hero," she tells Coulson, knowing how he'll respond. She bites her lips as she hears him huff exasperatedly, then smirks up at him when he turns on a nearby lamp, before passing her the plate of sandwiches from which he's removed the cover. She sits up carefully, wincing a little at how much everything aches, and pulls her legs up until she's sitting cross-legged at the head of the gurney. She pats the space in front of her, and Coulson sits at a right angle to her.

"Want one?" she asks, holding out the plate.

"Just the one," he says, and takes a ham and cheese sandwich, then proceeds to watch her with a very fond look as she demolishes the remainder very fast, too hungry to remember her manners.

"Better?" he asks, and she nods through her final mouthful. "Bet you could use something more than a couple of sandwiches, though?"

"Yeah," she says wistfully.

He shows her Andrew's note, and she chuckles: _Dear Skye, figured you'd wake up hungry. If these aren't enough, there's two pizzas in the oven – just reheat._

"Definitely my hero," she says with a loud, over-dramatic sigh.

"He's a married man," Coulson growls, and she giggles, making him smirk. "I'll go and re-heat the pizzas. Want something to drink?"

She nods. "I think there's still some of that energy drink Jemma makes me – it should be in the fridge, unless Hunter got drunk and finished it."

"He better not have," Coulson says, and he looks fierce at the idea.

"My hero," she says softly, then leans forward to press a brief kiss to his lips. "Pizza?"

He chuckles. "Apparently the way to your heart is through your stomach."

She rolls her eyes, and he gives her a quick kiss back, then says, "I'll be back."

He brings back the bottle of drink, and tells her the pizzas are heating up, then adds that Jemma's made up two more bottles of Skye's drink and left them in the fridge.

"Thanks." She accepts the bottle and downs several mouthfuls fast. She feels a bit less achy, and can already feel her energy levels creeping back up in response to Andrew's sandwiches. "Hey," she says.

Coulson looks up from the tablet he'd brought back with him. "Hmm?"

"We're still getting married this afternoon, right?"

His eyebrows shoot up. "Of course. Why wouldn't we?"

She gives a shrug. "I thought you might think it was too much excitement or something."

He shakes his head quickly. "I want to marry you," he says with quiet emphasis. "And I think it'd do you good to have something positive to bring excitement into your otherwise hopelessly dull and mundane life."

She laughs at that – their running joke about their lives being dull and mundane never fails to brighten her mood and lift her spirits. "You're right," she tells him. "Marrying you will definitely be the most exciting thing I've ever done."

He opens his mouth to make a smart retort, no doubt, but Skye's giving him a very serious look and she can see him realise that she's not joking around now. "Even more exciting than becoming a superhero?" he asks.

She nods. "Yeah, Phil."

He shakes his head slightly, then leans over to kiss her and she wraps her arms around him, kissing him back with some urgency.

"Uh, pizzas," he says after several minutes, and her stomach growls immediately, and they both laugh.

"Yeah, okay. Pizzas, then the other stuff."

"We're not going to do that here," he tells her, "privacy screens or not."

"Better send Jemma a text then," she says firmly. "I want our bed, and if we just sneak off there, she'll undoubtedly be annoyed with us later."

"Yeah." He sighs, then kisses her forehead. "I'll fetch the pizzas. You text Jemma."

"Okay." Skye watches him go, then grabs his cell phone and sends a message. She gets one back just as Coulson returns with the pizzas. "Jemma says to go to sleep in our room, and she'll see us in the morning."

"Shall we pretend to be teens and eat these in bed?" he asks, smirking, and she giggles.

"Why not? We can be sensible grown ups later."

He pockets his cell, and the tablet, then crooks his elbow, and she slides off the bed, then puts her arm through his and they head towards their quarters, Coulson carrying the pizzas, and Skye her bottle of energy drink. It's hard to believe that in another few hours she'll be married to this man. Every day she tells herself how lucky she is to have met Coulson. Her only regret about today is that Trip's not here to see their wedding (or her parents) – otherwise she doesn't think she could be happier.


End file.
